Landing the Big One

Landing the Big One

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Whale Boors: Terrorist boat gets whacked by Japanese whaling boat and the whining begins again

Take an idiot ship "captain" who routinely violates almost every rule of safe navigation in his admitted "terrorist" approach to "saving the whales" and add in enough money to keep him afloat and you've got Whale Boors, who are now whining that the small vessel they dispatched to attack and disable another ship was, in a nice turn of events, instead itself struck and disabled by the ship it was attacking. See here:
The futuristic Ady Gil trimaran, which holds the round-the-world speed record for a powered vessel and was enlisted by activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society for this whaling season, received "catastrophic damage" and was sinking, they said.

All six crew, who earlier hurled stink bombs at the whalers to disrupt their annual hunt, were rescued unharmed by Sea Shepherd's Bob Barker ship.

Activists described the collision as unprovoked but Japan lashed out at the the group, accusing them of "extremely dangerous" behaviour.

"The Shonan Maru No.2 suddenly started up and deliberately rammed the Ady Gil, ripping eight feet (2.4 metres) of the bow of the vessel completely off," a Sea Shepherd statement said.

"The Ady Gil is believed to be sinking and chances of salvage are very grim," it added.

But the Japanese Fisheries Agency said the Ady Gil came abnormally close to the Shonan Maru No.2 and suddenly slowed down while crossing in front of it. "These acts of sabotage that threaten our country's whaling ships and crew were extremely dangerous," it said in a statement. "It is totally unforgivable." Japan slams protestors

Videos released by both the Japanese and the activists show the sleek, black powerboat and the Shonan Maru No.2 colliding as the whaling ship targets it with water cannons.

There was no major damage to the Japanese ship and no Japanese crew members were injured in the collision, the fisheries agency said.

The whalers accused the Ady Gil's five New Zealand and one Dutch crew of trying to tangle the Nisshin Maru's rudder and propeller with rope, and aiming a "green laser device" at its sailors, as well as launching stink bombs.

"The Sea Shepherd extremism is becoming more violent... Their actions are nothing but felonious behaviour," Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research said in a statement.
The "Sea Shepherd" tactics described by the Japanese should be familiar to anyone who has ever watched the "how not to operate at sea" show "Whale Wars."

And, while I have no great respect for the Japanese whaling effort, the actions of the Sea Shepherds is way over the top.

UPDATE: Looking at the video, it appears to me that the Ady Gil propelled itself into the side of the Japanese ship (see the water jets kick in?), and judging solely by the wake (what little can be seen of it) of the whaler, she was in a port turn when struck.

UPDATE2: I wonder if the Japanese were turning to port to avoid the Gil when some idiot on the Gil erred in hitting the throttle?

UPDATE3: Gil may have props instead of jets. My point remains the same - it appears to have propelled itself into the collision.

UPDATE4: A reminder of things past.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous5:02 PM

    Having done my time at sea with the USN, I sometimes cringe at what I see on Whale Wars. They take risks and put themselves into positions that most sailors try to avoid at all costs. That said, I am reasonably certain that under normal sailing conditions, the bridge and boat crews of the Sea Shepherd ships would never maneuver the way they do. It is lamentable that governments with properly trained and equipped fleets are unwilling to stop the "research" whale hunting charade. If the US, Australia, New Zealand (el al.) would live up to their past rhetoric regarding the conservation of whales, whaling (and Whale Wars) would be over in very short order.

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